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October 23 -SAINT WILLIAM THE HERMIT AND BLESSED JOHN THE GOOD
“What does ‘walking’ mean? It means to ‘keep on going.’ So, keep on moving my friends. Examine yourself without self-deception, without flattery. There is no one inside you before whom you need to be ashamed, no one that you need to impress. Of course, God is there but he is pleased with your humility. You must be dissatisfied with the way you are now if you ever want to get to where you are not yet. When you are self-satisfied, you get stuck where you are. If you say to yourself, ‘That’s enough; I need not go farther,’ it is then that you die. Keep on walking, don’t stop on the road, don’t turn around and go back. Especially don’t wander off the road by turning away from Christ. A lame man limping along the road goes farther towards God than a sprinter running off the road.”
Sermon 169, 18

October 22 -SAINT JOHN PAUL II, POPE
“We should shout for joy when we look upon the whole of creation: the earth, the sea, the sky, and all the creatures in it with their own time for birth, existence, and decline. We watch the stars revolve from east to west as the time speeds by in hours and years. We see the hints of an invisible something, a spirit or soul, in living things which enables them to seek pleasure, flee from harm, and avoid decay. In ourselves we perceive a quality of mind that seems almost divine, a quality whereby we are not only able to live and see and hear like other animals but are able to think about God and distinguish justice from injustice as the eye can tell white from black.”
Commentary on Psalm 99, 5

October 21
“Let us listen to the voice of the Lord encouraging us from on high and comforting us. He has taken notice of our desire and has willingly accepted our plea that we have sent through Jesus. While we are still plodding along on our pilgrimage, he has deferred giving us what he promised. He urges us to ‘Hold out for the Lord!’ You will not be holding out for one who will be unable to find anything to give you. By holding out for the Lord you will come to possess him. The one for whom you are holding out will be yours forever. Long for something else, if you can find something greater or better or more lovely.”
Commentary on Psalm 26/2, 23

October 20 -SAINT MAGDALENE OF NAGASAKI, AUGUSTINIAN MARTYR
“You’re a Christian, you carry on your forehead the cross of Christ. The mark stamped on you teaches you what you should profess. When he was hanging on the cross – the cross you carry on your forehead … he was looking round at the people raving against him, putting up with their insults, praying for his enemies. Even while he was being killed, the doctor was curing the sick with his blood. He said, you see, ‘Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing (Lk 23:34). Nor were these words futile or without effect. And of those people, thousands later on believed in the one they had slain, so that they learned how to suffer for him who had suffered both for them and at their hands.”
Sermon 302

October 19 -SAINT JOHN DE BREBEUF AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS
“People change both for better and for worse. We are alternately encouraged and saddened by seeing the changes in people every day. We are cheered by people who live good lives and saddened when people wander away. That’s why the Lord did not promise salvation to those who begin well but rather says, ‘Whoever perseveres to the end is the one who will be save’ (Mt. 10:22).”
Sermon 51,1

October 18 -SAINT LUKE, EVANGELIST
“Job was tempted in many ways but stayed steadfast in his patience. At first, he lost all his possessions. Then he was afflicted by the death of his sons. Next his body was attacked with pain from head to foot. He got little help from those closest to him. His wife spent her time cursing God and encouraging him to do the same, but he would not. The paradox is that Adam in paradise consented to temptation while Job on his dung heap held firm. To add insult to injury, friends came suggesting that his woes were because of some great sin. Job suffered in his flesh, and in his heart, he endured the pain of the accusations of his wife and friends. But, he did not give in. He scolded his foolish wife, taught his friends wisdom, and preserved his patience.”
On Patience, 11-12

October 17 – SAINT IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH, BISHOP AND MARTYR
“By patience we are supported when, amid the troubles of this world, our happiness is postponed. It was with such patience that Kind David endured the attacks of his son Absalom. Although he could easily have destroyed Absalom, David forbade those who were grieved and upset by such treason to take vengeance on his wayward son. He accepted the moment as a time for humility and bowed to the will of God and drank the bitter wine of his son’s disloyalty with the greatest patience.”
On Patience, 9.8

October 16
“Take care that your habits are not corrupted, your hope undermined, your patience discouraged and you yourselves turned aside into crooked ways. On the contrary, by being meek and mild you keep to the straight ways which the Lord teaches you. The truth is, without patience amid the troubles and trials of this life, hope in the future cannot be kept alive. You cannot maintain unflagging patience unless you are meek and mild, never resisting God’s will. Indeed, by being meek and mild you will not only love his consolations, you will also bear up under his discipline. Continuing to hope for what you cannot yet experience, you will wait for it patiently.”
Sermon 157, 2

October 15
“Highway robbers spend sleepless nights lying in wait for travelers. Their endurance is to be marveled at, but their apparent ‘patience’ should be condemned. Patience flows from wisdom, not passion. Patience is the product of a good conscience. It does not result in robbing the innocent. Whenever, then, you see someone enduring suffering, do not immediately praise that person’s patience. Patience must come from a good cause. Not all those who suffer have the virtue of patience. Only those who suffer for the right reason are crowned with patience’s reward.”
            On Patience, 5-6

October 14
“The virtue of patience endures trouble for good reasons but it becomes a vice when it descends into stubbornness. Stubbornness imitates patience; indeed, it is its close neighbor. Just as a person who cannot be forced to do evil is better than one who weakens under the pressure, so too a person who stubbornly cannot be turned away from evil is worse than one who can. Stubbornness prevents a person from ceasing his or her evil or foolish course of action even by the threat of the direst consequences. What shall we say of such a person who refuses to yield to pressure? Rather than describing such a one as having great patience we should recognize that he or she is just a hard-headed stubborn person.”
            Sermon 283, 7